LA Kings’ Darryl Sutter on coaching his 1000th NHL game

“Nah, all that is is a freaking warranty run out. It’s probably like 2,000 to tell you the truth, really when you look at it. They make a big deal of out if because it’s a stat, right? It’s a history stat that they look at. But to me, it’s way more important the number of playoff games that you’ve coached than guys that have coached 1,000 games in the regular season. Quite honest, if you look at it, I’ve been assistant coach, associate coach, general manager, player – there’s way more than 1,000. All those freaking lockouts, all those games. Best to tell the players, you know what, when you’re far enough along, all 1,000 games is is it tells you that you’re far enough along that you’ve had some success and then you can have some selection if you want to coach. It’s not like a job. If you look at me, I’ve been like [on] a sabbatical and then it’s a freaking mission and then it’s a sabbatical and then it’s a mission. So, as long as you enjoy it and you have kids like that in [our locker room]… the 1,000 games, when I look at, I think more about what your family has sacrificed than what I have, that’s for sure.”

On if coaching is still fun:

“Absolutely. I don’t have to coach. It’s not that you only have one kick at the cat, you’re trying to win… It’s true about the warranty, right? You don’t have to buy a new truck. Why don’t you buy the one with 100k miles already run off of it? It’s had all the maintenance, i’s still friggin good. Take care of it. Take care of the engine.”

Additional post-game quotes from Sutter, discussing a myriad of topics…

On Jonathan Quick’s first game in about two months:

“He was sharp. You know what? He was going to play last night and tonight or last night and tomorrow [in] Manchester, and then I wasn’t crazy about it because he was going to have to fly all-day Monday to play Tuesday, and I really didn’t like that. So once he got weathered out, I just talked to him after St. Louis, and he said he’d be ready… Once he was weathered out and he was coming home with us, and he was going to play games there, so that meant he was ready to play.”

On the string of close games lately:

“Well, if you do it statistically, look at the last game we played. We lost five-nothing, but we felt we deserved a better fate. So, you know what? We just have to stay the course. It’s hard to score. You look at Vancouver and Los Angeles, both teams have really had a tough time scoring. They both work really hard and do all that stuff. So, you’ve just got to stay with it. There’s two or three teams that have a higher offensive capability than we do, so you know what? We don’t concern ourselves with that. We concern ourselves with trying to do everything right, and play a 20-foot game, and we’ve been doing that, so tonight we finally got it back.”

On how important it is to get Dustin Brown producing offensively:

“I would say all of our players are really important, not just Dustin Brown. In terms of our offense, if you look at why we’re not in the top group in terms of scoring or offense, you know what? It’s not that there’s not enough of it. It’s not just Brownie. Obviously he’s got to score, but there are a lot of guys who have got to score for us.”

On if it was a difficult decision to scratch Matt Greene:

“It’s tough. Hey, you guys know how I feel. I’ve said this over and over and over I wish I could dress everybody, but at the same time our defense hasn’t been playing very well. It’s like when Marty sits out, when I don’t play Marty, it’s the same thing. It’s not an indictment on the player. It’s more we’re trying to find something that works, and with the heavy schedule, Robyn, Greener – they haven’t had any break in it.”

On Alec Martinez:

“I haven’t really looked at minutes or broke it out, but you know what? He’s a young guy, and he just turned, what, 26 in July? So when you come out of [being a healthy scratch], and he has to step in, you’ve got to give us some juice.”

On Vancouver being 1-7 vs. the three California teams this season:

“I’ve never really looked at it like that. I mean, we’re all in the same division now. I mean, look how close it is.”

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